I spent 25 years in adult education and the voluntary sector working alongside refugee and migrant communities. My roles included ESOL tutor / coordinator, Training Development and Employment Worker, mostly with refugee healthcare professionals, Public Service Interpreting (spoken language) Development, including university-level training, CPD and establishing a service for 9 GP surgeries in Tower Hamlets.

More recently, I completed an MA in Intercultural Communication and a PhD at UWE, Bristol. My thesis title is ‘Discourses of care: enactments of relational work in two dementia care settings’.  I have since worked for The Carers Centre in Bath and Northeast Somerset engaging with GP surgeries and other health-related charities regarding the needs of unpaid carers.

My research interests include care, in particular the important role of social interaction in social care settings and how that enables well-being for both the carer and the cared-for; the promotion and professionalisation of public service interpreting (both spoken and signed languages). Since February 2023 I have been a Non-executive Lay Board member on the National Register for Public Service Interpreters with particular interest in healthcare settings.